Boleto bancário: how boleto payments work for merchants selling to Brazil

What is a boleto bancário?

A boleto bancário, usually just called boleto, is a payment document issued in Brazilian reais on behalf of a beneficiary (the merchant) and addressed to a payer identified by CPF or CNPJ. It carries the amount, a due date, the beneficiary's details, a barcode and a 47-digit typeable line that the shopper can paste into a banking app.

Boletos remain common for bills, school fees, B2B invoices and online purchases by shoppers without a credit card or with no card limit left. Since the interbank collection platform was rolled out in 2017 and 2018, every boleto must be registered before it can be paid, so banks check the beneficiary and amount at payment.

How does a boleto payment work in online checkout?

For an e-commerce order the boleto is generated by the payment provider and shown or emailed to the shopper. The order stays pending until payment is confirmed, so stock reservation and due date need to match.

1. Collect payer data Checkout asks for the shopper's full name and CPF or CNPJ, which the registration requires.
2. Register the boleto The provider registers the boleto with amount, due date and fine or interest rules, and returns the barcode, typeable line and PDF.
3. Shopper pays The shopper pays in a banking app, at an ATM or at a lottery outlet, or scans the Pix QR code printed on newer boletos.
4. Confirmation The provider receives the bank's settlement file or the Pix confirmation and notifies your system by webhook.
5. Release and settle You ship or activate the order; the funds reach your account according to the provider's settlement schedule.

How long does a boleto take to clear?

A boleto paid through the bank network is cleared in the interbank compensation cycle, so merchants typically see the confirmation one business day after payment, and up to three business days with some providers or around weekends and holidays.

Since 3 February 2025, Resolução BCB 443/2024 allows a boleto to carry a Pix QR code. When the shopper pays through that code, the payment is confirmed in seconds, which removes most of the waiting time that used to make boleto unattractive for digital goods.

What does a boleto cost the merchant?

Brazilian banks and payment institutions usually charge a fixed fee per paid boleto rather than a percentage, which makes the method cheap for larger baskets. Cross-border providers that serve foreign merchants typically price boleto as a percentage that includes currency conversion and settlement abroad.

What is boleto parcelado?

Boleto parcelado means paying a purchase in instalments through a series of boletos. It is not a feature of the boleto rails themselves but a credit product: a fintech or buy now, pay later provider checks the shopper's CPF, pays the merchant the full amount minus a fee, and collects monthly boletos from the shopper. The provider carries the default risk.

It is popular for travel, education and electronics. For the merchant it behaves like a separate payment method with its own approval step, fee and settlement terms.

Pix vs boleto: which should you offer?

Pix has taken over much of the volume that boleto used to carry, but boleto keeps a role for shoppers who prefer to pay on a set date, for B2B invoicing and for customers who pay in cash. Most merchants selling to Brazil offer both alongside cards.

How can foreign merchants accept boleto?

Issuing a boleto requires a beneficiary with an account at a Brazilian bank or payment institution, so a company without a Brazilian entity cannot register boletos directly. Foreign merchants therefore use a cross-border provider such as EBANX, dLocal or PayRetailers, which issues the boleto, collects the reais in Brazil and remits the funds abroad through a foreign exchange arrangement authorised by the Banco Central do Brasil.

Before launch, check whether the provider prints a Pix QR code on its boletos, how long a boleto stays payable after the due date, and how refunds reach shoppers. With OrsunPay, boleto is configured on the provider account you already hold and appears in payment links and checkout when that provider supports it.